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Oral history recording with Adriano Fantini. Recorded as part of the Italian Memories in Wales project (2008-10), delivered by ACLI-ENAIP and funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Part 1 of 2 (AV 11401-11402)

00:00:01 Adriano Basilio Fantini was born on the 15th February 1966 in Tonyrefail, South Wales. His Italian grandparents were born in Torreano di Cividale in Friuli near Udine. His mother is Welsh with an English father and Welsh mother. Adriano didn’t know his Italian grandfather but he knew his grandmother very well. He describes her as very old, everyone in the village called her nonna. He recalls that she would tell him stories whilst making polenta. Polenta is a traditional dish of the area. As a child he went over to Italy with his parents every two years for the summer. From the age of sixteen he went alone and worked on his aunt’s farm.

00:04:00 His grandparents in Italy lived in a large house with farmland. They lived with a very extended family, all of whom shared the farm work. The family was poor and made a living selling their farm produce as they owned a lot of land. Much of the land was sold and now there is one landowner that owns all the land in the area which is very common. The family had woods in the mountains for fuel for the winter, they had vines and would produce corn, hay for the animals. It was a healthy, self-sufficient lifestyle. The work was done by hand, his father is an expert using the scythe. As time went on they had more modern machinery. He describes a day working on the land. He would get up at seven and go to work in the fields, he would nap in the afternoon and finish at around seven in the evening. In the evening when he was older he would visit friends. The land was split between all the children, so as the family grew the land got divided and land got smaller. Some people sold their piece of land. As the land was divided up between the family people from different towns would work on the same land, though everyone knew each other and would help each other. Most people in the area owned some land at that time. Animals were kept. They would produce grapes, sweet corn and potatoes. Soya was also grown in later years as it became very popular.